There Ain’t No Such Thing as Free Lunch Essay

Custom StudentMr.
TeacherENG
1001-04
2 December 2016

There Ain’t No Such Thing as Free Lunch

“ There Ain’t No Such Thing as Free Lunch” is made famous by writer Robert A. Heinlein in 1966 in his novel “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. ” The novel discusses the problems as an outcome of an unbalanced economy (Heinlein, 1966). It is also used among economics literature demonstrating an opportunity cost, meaning, in order to get or do something, you need to give up something. This is simply because in the realms of economics, resources are almost always limited or what we usually refer to as “scarcity. ” In our daily lives we always make decisions and in doing so, we give up something for what we choose to do.

Such that I chose to be doing this paper, while I could have watched TV or went out with my friends. Also instead of getting a job as early as now, I chose to be in school. Even if something appears to be free, like the air we breathe or the water we bathe, still the air could have been enclosed in a tank and be sold and the water could have been use for something else. The concept that there is no free lunch could also be applied in a societal level. For example on implementing taxes, the government could choose not to get taxes and people may like it, but it will be at the expense of development like poor infrastructure.

Likewise for a free concert, it may appear to be free, but somebody paid the price for it to make the concert possible. Be it personal or societal, the idea of opportunity cost or the phrase there is no such thing as free lunch holds true in its own sense. What should one bears in mind is that the opportunity cost should be lesser than what you chose to do. Had I chose to watch TV than write this paper, would possibly mean, failure on the subject. Or had I chose to be in a job, may mean earning so much less than how much I will get paid after I have a college degree.

However we relate the phrase, the fact is we all have trade-offs in life.